|
|
Article: `A Fiercely Moral Fiend': Straub's Newest Chiller
- Article from:
- Chicago Sun-Times
- Article date:
- March 3, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1996 Chicago Sun-Times. (Hide copyright information)
|
The Hellfire Club
By Peter Straub. Random House. $25.95.
This new novel by Peter Straub, the literate definer of nightmares
in Ghost Story, is grounds to hope for a snowbound weekend.
Abandoning the supernatural, Straub jumps genres in The Hellfire
Club, which combines the cozy realm of the intellectual-puzzle
mystery with a powerful vein of psycho-thriller suspense. The corpse
count is substantial, and though most of the gore occurs far
offstage, there's still enough graphic violence to push a sofa
lizard's pulse to aerobic levels. As in Straub's previous big books,
this is a gargantuan engine with multiple, meshing plots in which the
sins of the past power the active evil of the ...